Qualcomm seeks to block iPhone sales and manufacturing in China

This legal battle kicked off in January, when Apple filed a lawsuit claiming that Qualcomm was holding payments for ransom.

Qualcomm Inc filed lawsuits in China, seeking to halt the manufacture and sale of Apple Inc's iPhones in the country, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Qualcomm's suit says that Apple infringed on a trio of patents covering Force Touch and power management. Qualcomm filed the suit claiming that Apple infringed on patents from the chip-maker, and according to Qualcomm spokeswoman, Christine Trimble, "Apple employs technologies invented by Qualcomm without paying for them".

In a statement, Apple said the claims were "meritless", and that it believed the effort would fail. Spokesperson Josh Rosenstock told Bloomberg that "in our many years of on-going negotations with Qualcomm, these patents have never been discussed".

The gloves are coming off I'm the legit brawl between two major players in the smartphone industry: Qualcomm and Apple.

The decision by the San Diego-based Qualcomm to take Apple to court in China is notable. While Qualcomm gets the majority of its sales from making phone chips, it pulls in most of its profit from charging fees for patents that cover the fundamentals of all modern phone systems. The Greater China region accounted for 22.5 percent of Apple's $215.6 billion sales in its most recent financial year. Apple also has asked iPhone and iPad manufacturers not to pay royalties to Qualcomm for failing to offer its standard essential patents in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner. All we know right now is that this legal fight won't end anytime soon.